Summer Exhibitions

This year I saw three major Picasso exhibitions.  Even better than the London Gagosian show was the Peace & Freedom exhibition at Tate Liverpool.  Focusing on Picasso's often little noted role as a political activist, peace campaigner, supporter of women's causes and feminist.

The highlight is the Charnel House (1945) but I was particularly struck by Lobster vs. Cat!

Sargent and the Sea at the Royal Academy, London was a smallish exhibition in the 1st floor gallery space but packed with goodies from Sargent's early career. Travels around the Med and across the Atlantic bred a fascination with the sea and those who live around and work on it.  There were dynamic sketches of life on deck during trans-atlantic crossings.  The paintings of Mediterranean folk are a masterclass in expressive loose painting techniques.

Recently opened at Tate Britain, London is a fascinating look at the life and career of pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge.  Of course as an animation artist I'm familiar with his locomotion studies but I wasn't aware of his parallel career photographing northern California.  He made stunning landscape shots of Yosemite, lighthouses along the Pacific Coast, the Farallon Islands and giant Redwoods.  He had settled in San Francisco and it was railroad tycoon John Stanford who first commissioned Muybridge to settle the 'flying horse' debate.  Muybridge made an impressive panoramic study of San Francisco from the roof of Mark Hopkins'mansion on Nob Hill.  More intimate studies of the interiors of these mansions gave an insight into the world of the 'railway rich' around the turn of the last century before it was decimated by the earthquake and fire of 1906.

Muybridge really led an extraordinary life-a self made man born in England who made a name for himself in California.  He pioneered early photographic techniques, reinvented himself as Helios and made a fortune flogging postcards.  He later shot his wife's lover in the face and literally got away with murder!   He's influenced everyone from Francis Bacon and David Hockney to animators and film-makers.  Someday a biopic film will be made of Muybridge and his luxuriant beard. (Apparently Philip Glass based his 1982 opera The Photographer on Muybridge's life).

This is Muybridge in the shot above contemplating his next career move.

Ireland

Before I went to Norway I went to Ireland!  2 weeks driving around the republic drawing and drinking Guinness!  First stop Dublin-

The Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin has Dublin born Francis Bacon's London studio.  It was meticulously photographed and recorded  then rebuilt in the museum!

~across the country to Galway & Connemara. . .

~south through Ballyvaughan & the Burren. . .

The ancient stone 'portal' Poulnabrone . . .

~On the way to the cliffs of Moher . . .

~a detour  through Tipperary and Cashel . . .

my goal was to see Dingle where David Lean filmed Ryan's Daughter.  The journey across the mountain pass and down to the town is spectacular but it's no longer the sleepy little fishing village of Lean's time.

We kissed the Blarney Stone at Blarney castle.  It's supposed to endow the gift of the gab- specifically sophisticated 'blarney'  as opposed to 'baloney' which is bullshit!  Maybe it'll help me pitch in story sessions?

I think my favourite place in Ireland must be Cobh-close to Cork.  It has one of Europe's deepest natural harbours and the Titanic sailed out of there to its doom!

Back to Dublin for the ferry through Waterford and Kilkenny. . .

The 'Emerald Isle' really is that colour-I was blown away by the variety of green hues in the landscape-it made for an unforgettable journey.

Norway

 A Lighthouse Troll drawn in the guestbook of Kråkenes Fyr-a lighthouse 'inn' we stayed at.

I'm back from the 10 day trip around Norway that I won.  We had an intensive itinery with activities every day-glacier hiking, rafting, cycling etc. but I still squeezed in some sketching between all the extreme outdoor pursuits!

The UNESCO protected wooden shops on the waterfront in Bergen.

The Johannes Kirken in Bergen.

View across the harbour at Flåm

Kalvoya Island

Drawing in the bridge of the Fjord 1-one of the rapid ferries we used to get around the long stretches of water between our destinations.  The Norwegians have always used the fjords to transport themselves and goods-seems to be the quickest way!

 Quick sketches made out the window of the ferry of islands and landscape we passed.

We spent a day under the sun at Hoddevik-a 'surfers paradise'.  While the others practised surfing I found a quiet spot on the jetee to make this drawing.  The air was pungent with the smell of scores of rotting king crabs that had been dashed on the rocks by waves.

The banks of the Oslo fjord are dotted with cute little huts-presumably used for weekend sun-bathing and swimming.

 Sketching atop a glacier was a first for me-I got a wet behind though!

Ringebu Stave Church

Spain pt. 2

Leaving Bilbao we started heading south towards Madrid.  We stopped in Burgos to see El Cid's tomb in the cathedral.

Continuing south a slight detour to the west took us to see the impressive Alcazar of Segovia.

Next day we hit Madrid where we would find our quarry-Picasso's 'Guernica'.  However the museo Reina Sofia was closed the day we arrived so we had to spend an extra night at Madrid's one & only campsite sweating in our stuffy tents.  We passed the evening exploring some of the city's exotic watering holes.

The morning after we went went back to the museo Reina Sofia and finally clapped eyes on Picasso's masterpiece!  In printed form I'd never noticed the bird painted in between the bull and the horse.

I felt I had to make a study of the painting so tussled by hordes of Korean tourists and Spanish school kids I made the sketch above.

After Madrid we headed west into the vastness of Castille la mancha.  We didn't see any Quixote style windmills but we passed literally hundreds of the modern turbine type.
We were heading straight across country to Barcelona but a friend was visiting Zaragoza to the north so we took a sharp left turn & headed up into Aragon to meet him.